One of the main reasons why SAP SE’s software products have become ubiquitous in the enterprise is that they can be customized according to the specific requirements of an organization. But the provider’s approach comes at the expense of complexity, a trade-off that becomes especially pronounced when it’s time to update a deployment.

Tricentis Inc. and Panaya Inc. have taken it upon themselves to address the issue. The two companies today announced a partnership aimed at tackling one of the most time-consuming chores involved in SAP projects: ensuring that all the changes brought by an update work as intended. Their plans revolve around a new jointly developed platform that combines their respective testing automation tools.

The first component is Tricentis’ flagship Tosca product, which is designed to help with the hands-on aspect of software evaluation. The tool observes how workers interact with an SAP application and create models that encapsulate their usage patterns. Once enough information has been gathered, operations professionals can predict what impact a given change would make on day-to-day operations.

Tosca thus provides the ability to spot potential usability problems that may hamper productivity. Operations staff can then aggregate the results of an evaluation in the Panaya Test Center, the other component of the new platform. The tool is designed to streamline the logistics of assessing updates, which enciompasses most of everything from setting project goals to determining which tester should carry out what part of the work.

Tricentis and Panaya claim that the combination of their products can dramatically reduce the amount of manual work involved in the evaluation process, which makes it possible to roll out updates faster. Seeing that about half of SAP projects are completed behind schedule, that can potentially be a major boon for organizations. Moreover, the providers claim that their platform also reduces the risk of human error and subsequently lowers the chance of design flaws slipping through the racks.

Tricentis and Panaya are offering the solution under the name Autonomous SAP Testing. They’ll be demonstrating the platform at the software giant’s upcoming Sapphire Now conference in Orlando, Florida.

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